I've always wondered about thhe smell/scent too. I gather they are pollinated by flies and usually things that are pollinated by flies have an ordor of rotting meat. I've never managed to find one in bloom so haven't been able to check it out myself. But they are also traditional 'porch vines' so that would seem to indicate that the smell, if there is a bad one, can't be very strong or last very long. So I'm also interested in hearing people's experience with them...

Aristolochia littoralis also (formerly) known as A. elegans. Easy but more delicate and not as vigorous as bigger A. gigantea or A. ringens which are other great Aristolochia. butterfly people had to admit it but you gotta control the amount of caterpillars on these and most passiflora or the plant will not get established with any vigor. I use BT which is a safer way to only target caterpillars but it isn't systemic so after a rain you gotta reaply. Bayer advanced markets some excellent pesticides that are systemic but even those only last a couple weeks. I like Conserve SE but I don't know if its available to the retail consumer. It's a systemic and esaier on non targeted insects such as bees. In any case even once established well I still spray portions of the vine to control a million caterpillars. Plucking off the cats and crushing eggs on leaf tip tendrils are a good way too. Don't get me wrong I love the butterflies and hate to hinder their family rates. Aristolochia doesn't like much fertilizer in fact too much and it will hamper blooming but it will grow a lot of leaves.

You seem to be a victim of success. The question is do you want pretty plants or happy caterpillars. I don't think you can have both. I agree that the cats can kill a plant by eating all it's leaves. Passionflower seems to adapt pretty well by underground roots and having baby vines springing up all over the place. I also grow a couple different dutchman's pipes and the fimbriata is especially prone to being killed off by cats. Hard to replace it without going to a special nursery hours away and spending boocoo $'s. I do it when I feel like it. Perhaps you should grow bigger plants that can't be killed off. Senna's come in tree form and the sulfurs are beautiful to watch around them all day. Giant swallowtail like citrus as well as Hercules club and prickly ash. I grow all of these and they are never decimated. I also have passionflowers and milkweed eaten to nothing regularly and just bought some more milkweed from a native nursery. It's my small price for butterflies around all day. Whoops gotta go. Giant ST just buzzed by. Denise

What type of dutchman's pipe do you have? If it is the hardy one that can survive outdoors in your zone (A. durior/A. macrophylla), I just picked up a propagation book that recommends to take greenwood cuttings for the hardy dutchman's pipe in midsummer. The greenwood cutting is from the new growth just beginning to get firm (timing is important). The pieces used look like they are short about 2" with the lowest set of leaves removed and inserted in soil up to just below the first pair of leaves. The growing tip is also pinched off and no mention of rooting hormone. It doesn't say how long it would take but it did mention bottom heat helps speed the rooting. The tray is kept moist to keep them from drying out but not too soggy to rot them, and is also kept covered with a plastic humidity dome with an air vent. I hope that helps, I have yet to try this method. :) Last summer I tried rooting a piece of my hardy dutchman's pipevine in water but it didn't work. Maybe you could also try dividing a piece of root from it while it is still dormant? I am planning on trying that once the snow melts and the ground isn't frozen anymore. I don't know if it prefers to flower on old or new growth but mine didn't get cut back and only had four flowers last summer. I was really hoping for some seed pods but they all fell off :( ))i(( Jennifer